New Village Gadgets: Synergy of Human-Powered Generation and Ultra-Efficient Electrical Appliances for Poverty Eradication

Over a billion people live without access to electricity. Many of them are too widely spread out to be dealt with cost-effectively using centralised or even distributed power generation. Human powered electricity fits in nicely here. With sustained power of about 150W for untrained people and over 500W for top athletes, human power have enough for many useful applications such as lighting, phone charging, and computing. An experimental hand-crank generator of about 30W and cycling generator about 300W is reported. For the most energy intensive cooking activities, efficient appliances such as the microwave oven and the vacuum cooker significantly slash energy requirements to make it within the reach of human power. This paper collects such modern inventions and check that they require less power than what the muscle can deliver. In addition, original designs of ultra-efficient devices are outlined, including over-unity efficiency heating devices based on heat-pump technology, DIY glass heater, 8kg foldable electric scooter, extremely low power dimmable lighting system, and a flame amplifier to multiply effectiveness of the candle light. A self-sufficient modern village using these modern inventions and homemade utensils is pictured to illustrate that we need not look any further to achieve sustainability. It only requires modest investment in time and money to collect and built these appliances, then disseminate information about how it is done in the model village.